talking poetry...talking life

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Bader Shaker Alsayyab, the famous Iraqi Modernizer of the classic Arabic poetry from Basrah, was recently the focus of a new publication that included a number of papers and testimonies, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Al-sayyab's demise. This important book was chosen and edited by poet Maithem Alharbi and Publisher Zaim Nassar, and published by Al-Rawsam for Press, Distribution and Publishing. the print falls in 270 pp. and considered a reference and a document to all those related to Iraqi poetry as whole and Al-sayyab and Basrah in particular. The introduction by Maithem Alharbi opens the doors and invites readers with the following words:

Fifty years passed since Al-sayyab's departure, which is the same time span when talking about foundation and pioneering... Al-sayyab's moment is that of a solid structure that embraced endless delicacy and tenderness. in more than an incident, scholars presenting Al-sayyab deformed his image in the eyes of their students. there were always those who would scatter his very meaning and philosophy that strives to preserve the torch of values of modernization and freedom lit . Al-sayyab's relation with modernization was parallel; in the frame of his literature ambitions , he crystallized a specific perspective concerning the surrounding world as it was moving inside its own Geography, History and tongue,he realized that the moment has finally developed into the stage of announcing free prose or what is known as modernizing the strict form of classic Arabic poetry. A simple tuning made by Al-sayyab ensured a huge bounce in programming Arabic poetry that kept swaying on the tone of meters for lengthy centuries. this change came hand in hand with the transformation of meditation that shifted from being sensual to a more intellectual form. Irony covers today's scenery as we try to provide an enlightened and modern document inside an environment of continuous political rage and violence that seems rather remote from civilization in its deep meaning. How could Al-sayyab's moment be such an eminent and historical one? his work " the undertaker" was taken in a critical account for being the turning point for all that has been written in Arabic poetry, especially when you consider the fact that this time span covers a 14- century period of time.The book also highlights the fact that the Arabic modernization project is far different from other modernization approaches throughout the world given the fact that the lengthy period of the traditional two parts meter- owned template, stood stubbornly in the face of any modernizing attempts endured by Al-sayyab and those who shared the same road; As they stumble against fierce critics and disapproval. on the other hand French and American literature circles showed more flexibility in dealing with new trends and means of expression. in page 49, critic Hasan Al-Salman raises a very sensitive issue concerning the personality and mind of Al-Sayyab, which was rather a highly disputed point throughout various papers, the point of his jumping from one party to another and being a harsh defender who turns into an aggressive opponent by time. Many accused him of having a double agent attitude but it really doesn't seem to apply to him when you go through his poetry as a tourist trying to get the best of his luxurious sensitivity and deep blue, Thus Al-Salman pointed out the issue and dealt with it on bases of reality , since Al-Sayyab was the holder of a high critical sense, he disapproved the slyness of the parties he joined as soon as those ways become clear and evident at least for him, by time this resulted in grouping a number of contradictory opinions by this poet who reflected by poetry and journalism on every day life and its links to man's being.

page 208, Lamia Abbas Amara, an eminent Iraqi poet wrote about her colleague and friend, Al-Sayyab starting that she kept tracking his writings to see where he fixed her in the list of abuse! but then she returns to those soft memories and adds that she thinks he was deeply moved by the heroes of the romantic era, great names dying at young ages for mere sacrifice, " I think that the idea was absorbed by his unconsciousness and if he had any chance to live as long as we did, he would have ended in exile like most of us. we thought that our death was too precious to be tolerated by this universe! unlike what we witness today, Iraqi's blood is so cheap... He was haunted by the chill of immortality that led him to write till his last moments, saving no scrap of this holy treasure he endured...pain "

Fadhil Al-Azzawi, a well-known Iraqi poet, on page 213, wrote: being a famous poet at your time does not necessarily drive time's mercy to spare you from being a mere past!..but the role that a myth plays in embracing certain names in the vault of memory may succeed in returning to that name every now and then. early death of a great poet lends us the lens of loss as we look at his life and productive soul. many names were granted an additional dimension of admiration for this early departure. Al-Sayyab's misery covered all stages of his life the dire need urged him to write in various directions, but does this attempt of survival cast a dark shade on his creativity and poetic wit? Al-Sayyab drew an important outline for the future course of modern Arabic poetry. Al-Azzawi goes on, sensing the aspects of our poet's delicateness and high spirited encounter, at the end he concludes, that Al-Sayyab , like other great names achieved an immortal name by a number of epic poems that no poetry lover can pass by them without a saluting heart...

On the 22nd of June , 2015, the Iraqi writers Union held a session to discuss the reality of translating poetry in Iraq, comparing past and recent status, pros and cons, planning, and several other related issues.The circle that joined academics, poets, critics, writers, and poetry lovers from intellectual backgrounds, who have attended the session and enriched it with various comments and dialogues, was moderated by Dr. Saad Yasin Yousif, who hosted both Iraqi translator and Poet, Amal Ibrahim and Assistant Professor, Muzahim Husseinwho is also a member of Iraqi and Global Translator Unions. Practical experiments and projects were covered by Ms. Ibrahim as she stressed upon the ( art ) of translation that relies on a firm knowledge base, and how a dire need is rising for translating inside stories and experiences to reflect on the bright side of Iraq, an approach that the translator considers as critical in status quo. Whereas translation teacher Mr. Hussein stressed upon the past literally translation between English and Arabic and how meters and rhyme were detected and sought in achieving poetry translation.poems were recited in both languages and the experiment of this site was also highlighted in this concern.the session revealed the critical effect of exchanging literature and culture via translation whereas many of the workers in the circle demanded a new mapping for literature translation and a bigger push towards institutionalization and marketing.

Iraqi Critic and poet Maythem Alharbi wrote a notion about the poetry book , The Back Door of the Day. saying: this is the first poetry collection by Iraqi poet Amal Ibrahim. the form of writing is prose, the book doesn't limit its premises to a woman's sufferings merely from the loss or longing for the beloved in a naive way, rather, this book's concerns pave the way for broader steps...where you find such an intimate relation between the writer's experience and the texts. poetic phrases fill humane spirit with sparks of questionings, as an aproach to undermine the steadiness of ill values, as it presents a smart elegy that crossed the fences of calamity to invent what exceeds mere laughter or crying.

Amal Ibrahim makes us believe, as we go through the pages of her collection, that she's creating a double door,one to escape, and another to confront. escaping and confronting seem to be the inner motives of the texts, and obviously there is a continuous dialogue with one's self but outside the cage of the echoing ego. the texts are intended to hear an answer from the world more than being content in a cave of silence, since its moral message is to raise and appreciate the value of freedom and defend its grounds. quoted from Charles Baudelaire : I don't write poetry to entertain eloquence loving minds" . the texts were written with care, and in order to read them, one should lighten himself from the burdens of ready cliches and pre- estimation, that normally surround the evaluation of any Iraqi female writer in her own home country.

During our tour throughout Germany in March 2015, to promote the Iraqi Anthology (Eyes of Inana) for contemporary women writers; an event that was invested to expose the nature of Iraqi society post Saddam 2003, and reflect on the issues that women witness and deal with on daily bases.A question was frequently raised asking about the reason why Iraq is considered a home of poetry and why fiction is almost invisible. the answer was brief due to time and occasion that was always stressing on poetry at the time; but this held me responsible to investigate the real boundaries of fiction in Iraq..and to be honest..we were the ones looking with the eye of poetry to the cultural arena!

fiction, when, how and why...

After 2003, pens ripped off the curse of silence.The oppressed sought solace in exposing the sufferings and calamities Iraqi people have witnessed under Saddam.Resurrection of the victim and seeking triumph for generations was the focus of Iraqi fiction writings upon the topple of the murderous regime; thus listing a painful delay of exposing facts and events that tore apart the Iraqi society and soul for decades.(Dates and Yoghourt) is an Iraqi novel by Khudheir Fleyeh Alzaydi that reflects on the bitter taste of contradictions that Iraqis endured to survive and where Alzaydi provided his pages with the essence of Iraqi beings in a painful surrealism; it leads us to a conclusion, after having the chance to listen to each other after the topple of Saddam Hussein and the decline of its bloody secret force, that each and every Iraqi individual is a unique novel by himself.Novels like ( A donkey and three Republics, Khudher Qad and the Olivaceous Era, Behind the Dam, and Dates and Yoghurt) represent a delayed slap on the face of terminators and scourgers. works that embodied the Iraqi memory as a precaution from being caught in a stage of cure less Alzheimer. these works teach us how a suffering soul could neutralize its anger in a descent piece of writing art. this is only a small portion of what was released during the post Saddam era where a series of documentaries were issued in several languages to attract humane support, global subconsciousness and facing it with naked pain; pain with no make up nor care. these writings were actually pushing the rented pens that glorified previous regime's war machines off the cliff. The Iraqi writers, in spite of being held back from expression, chased the steps of fiction modules and their developments across different cultures in the world and what was being created in this marvelous field of documentary expression; Thus being capable of manipulating these instruments when seizing the chance to do so.Behind the Dam by Abdullah Alsikhi, was an attempt to draw the strokes of an Iraqi identity and sub identity that covered vast areas of intellectual discussions after 2003. A donkey and three Republicsby Karim Qtafa, exposes subsequent forms of governance in Iraq and struggling poles of power; At the same level we recall the titles of the writer Abdul Karim Alubaidi(Flies and Emerald) and ( Lost in Hafr Albatin). At the same time parallel attempts emerged to reflect on the sense of exile that millions of Iraqis endured to save their lives and careers like Tishari by Inaam Kechachi , Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmad Saadawi, and Recollecting the lion by Warith Bader. . Many novels were dedicated to discuss the issue of Iraqi Identity, like Shrugiyya by Shawqi Karim, Basriyans by Mohammed Khudheir, Memory of Arrapha (ancient Kirkuk) by Mohammed Jabbur Alwan and many others. It is very important to point out that Iraq has witnessed a critical turning point when the nature of division was transformed from a political approach (Baathists, Communists and Islamists) into Sectoral divisions that reflect the voices of constituents of the Iraqi social texture. thus novels, fiction or any documentary can rarely avoid a certain tang or trait.

Mudhafar Alnuwab the Iraqi poet who had the ability to make Iraqis sing his words with eyes full of sorrow and tears, and managed to color their silent dreams with desire and voice. he managed to build a wide audience inside and outside the country; as capitals soared their hands towards praise that he deserved in spite of political cuffs.He had a firm attitude facing betrayal of his time; where most of the communists shaked hands with the criminal Baathist party that was holding government at that time. the poems that reflected this conduct spread like fire in dry leaves, at the same time they became the fuel that ignited intellectual controversy and endless conversations. His poetry found two channels of survival; covering contemporary events and issue and being an immortal messenger. innovation never failed his trials, always surprising his audience with a ( new look) poem in its construction, treatment, metaphors, creation and abundance. the source of all of this was his penetrating honesty with his own self that once it is released you might lose track...Iraqis repeated his words in songs and hardships for he wrote poetry in both slang (local) and standard Arabic. His poems gave them sweeping wings, and kept bitter droplets of reality at the end of each tongue. oppression was faced with Alnuwab's magic and wisdom... His commemoration was and always will be an occasion to spare him a new age of creativity and love... he proved that people are immortal through their deeds ...and words.poetry in the hands and eyes of Alnuwab is resurrection itself . It is the long awaited savior. poetry gives wings to the helpless, those metaphysical wings that reach the very heart of beauty. Reality, pain and imagination sustain hope in souls and build up expectations from ruins.Alnuwab's poems are endless beginnings breaking down to phrases of irony, once picturing the audience , you capture surprised laughter and tearing eyes ... the finale is always a heavy sigh...

Sargon Boulus(Iraq - San Francisco, USA) A poet deals with time; all those metrics and intricacies of music and sound are only ways of measuring time, drop by drop, as it slips through his fingers and evaporates into nothing. 'The drop that doesn't become the river is devoured by the sands,' says Ghalib in one of his Ghazals.Time after time we make the discovery that when we are writing we are actually remembering, not the past itself, not a person or place, a scene or sound or song, but first and foremost we are remembering words. The words that reside in a certain memory, that carry the echoes of a certain place and time. But the problem for a poet is not essentially one of vocabulary. The problem is how to take the old vocabulary and put it in new settings, in new structures that will speak of our present, and illuminate what is happening now. So the function of memory is not simple: one needs to know the words and what they mean, but one needs also to forget the settings in which they are found. This is why it can happen, while one writes, in the middle of his journey or near its end, that all the while he had been traveling toward Ithaka, and that he only left it in order to find it. It was Gertrude Stein who put it right when she said: 'Writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, it is separate from themselves, it is not real but it is really there….of course sometimes people discover their own country as if it were the other.' There is a tale attributed to Rumi that says: 'A man went to the door of the beloved, and knocked. A voice from inside asked him: who is there? The man answered: This is me. 'This place is not wide enough for you and me', said the voice. The door remained closed. The man went away, perplexed and confused, wondering about those words, contemplating their hidden meaning. After a year of living in solitude, deprived of the simplest pleasures of life, he finally decided to go out and knock on the door again. The same voice asked him from inside:' Who is there?' 'This is you', the man answered. And the door was opened. Of course, to the Sufi, a whole series of rigorous spiritual exercises has to be gone through in order for the door to be opened so he can enter into the presence of the beloved, as the mystics call him, or God. The task of the poet, whose only tools are words, is different. For him the door is locked until he succeeds, through sheer dedication, in penetrating the mystery of language itself. And because art is long and life is short, no individual poet has ever been able to achieve this formidable task completely, even the greatest ones. What happens is that each poet throughout history, whether consciously or not, is actually continuing the work of the poets who came before him, something like an endless poem or chain-letter that extends into eternity, or the end of time. Milosz wrote a poem once that says exactly this; it tells about the incredible journey of poets through the ages, as a band of humans who chose their own way, bent on telling the truth. In the same vein, Borges, in his essay 'Coleridge's Rose', has iterated a similar idea: that all poets have actually been elaborating the same ancient epic of which each poem is only a mere fragment. I liked Milosz's poem so much that I translated it into Arabic and published it in a daily newspaper that is published in London, where the Nobel laureate was to give a reading at the London Poetry Festival. The great poet was fascinated by the shape of the Arabic letters, and asked me eagerly which poem it was. I told him it was titled 'A Report' and was obviously raised to God, or an entity he called 'O Most High'. Milosz beamed. 'Oh yes of course,' he said. You know, I have sent him many reports through the years, but He has never answered me.' I couldn't help saying to the great poet:' Who knows, maybe one day He will.

The main pillar of writing poetry is imagination, which is, as I see it, the energy of mind that interacts with reality; having the ability to initiate feelings, senses ,images, and ideas and setting them as a cinematic scene. without this energy nothing can be established; but how is it that this energy comes to exist? Far from brain and nervous system physiology and nearer to poetic expressions; we find that it is created after preserving what is abundant of senses after listening well and highly concentrating and sharpening your seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. After this sensual expertise is acquired, we must not keep ourselves limited to this sensation. We need, at this point, to push in our imagination. at the same time, imagination seems weak and helpless without this accumulation of feelings. Those feelings need to be stored as fresh as possible, and kept soft and delicate; called upon writing though never mechanically or intentionally but simultaneously as a result of the creative interaction between the poet, the world of his text and reality. Feelings, images and ideas are a negative sum of components if not directed in a constructive manner that would empower the text and give it a continuous texture. The relation between imagination and poetic texts is an invisible relation that appears only through organizing the imagination process inside the text. The fact is that what we find inside the text as it is being built and erected, is the reflection of the poet’s capacity of managing his imagination by his expertise in this field and his ability to benefit from his stored senses and feelings. What does the poet’s imagination name: a tree, childhood, war, or even friendship? they are named and described according to their power and style of impact upon one's mind and that would simply overwhelm the crystallizing text ; our experience that has sought from this tree its movement, color, or even its gradients, and what it draws inside us of special taste and odor; is it an individual shoot or does emerge as a forest abundance? is it a tree for dreams? or is it the precursor of a coffin? our experience in life opens the doors for many inquiries and leads us to the edges of a certain poetic text. where does this experience come from? is it from our alien feeling towards reality or is it from our full integration within? imagination that is already rooted in the grounds of reality places us on the crossing point of being a stranger or intimate with reality; we return reality its belongings in the form of texts and poems that it might deny... but whether accepting it or not those poems are the children of reality. we stand in front of the mirrors for a lengthy time , we wrote poetry after turning away from those mirrors. so, it seems only logical that we have written down our imagination after no mirror is left before us...I guess that writing poetry is imagining reality in the instance of its absence ...can I say that this is the ultimate poetic peak? maybe even more....

The first known poet in history, Enheduanna, was an Iraqi woman. She wrote about Inanna on tablets in the cuneiform language. The interesting thing about her is that she had a position or title. It was “The keeper of the flame.” I think that if a poet should have any role at all, it should be (wherever and whenever) the same: “keeper of the flame.” Dunya Mikhail

When words fall short of reaching conviction, weapons make it even worse....

Many times I get entangled inside contradicting opinions about the very life left here , in Iraq, to live...was war the only solution available in the reach of politicians that couldn't be avoided by any means?going through websites and reading veteran's opinions and poetry about Iraq I honestly feel that the American soldiers didn't have the time of their lives neither; being dumped here with stupid arms and vehicles, and worse; with a plan of NO PLAN!both sides are human beings ;they simply can't keep distant to their inner conscious, words start flowing from tears and emotions upon paper, on sand, in the air...and by voices; mostly remain unheard. people unlike decision makers need truth and they DO care... they need other people's opinions,so we need to hear from both sides, what both endured at that terrible era...how they both managed?, how they got along with consequences...It is poetry and other forms of writing (of no personal interest or aim) that can uncover the inner war... reaching peace in mind and soul . (Amal I brahim)

Voices from Iraq: Iraqi Poets

Of Freedom By Mahmud Al-Braikan (translated by Haider Al-Kabi)

You have invited me to explore another continent with you, but you wouldn’t share the map. I would rather sail In my simple boat And if we chance to meet, That will be a meeting to remember. You have offered me a house, Decorated and comfortable, In exchange for a song That sticks to the instructions. I would rather stay On my horse’s back And roam From wind to wind. You have brought me another face, Fresh and flawless, ideal in size. Thank you, but I don’t feel like having a glass eye Or a plastic mouth. I don’t want to wipe out differences. I don’t care for perfect symmetry. Thank you, but My distance is something I’d prefer to save. Is the slave master not, at heart, a slave?

The Prey By Adil Abdullah (translated by Soheil Najm) Like a flock of eagles on their wounded prey The furies have descended on Iraq In spite of all their hatred for each other. Each night they return to their lairs Under the wing of darkness, Oblivious to the blood That smears their mouths. But shame will seize their souls When they discover, in the morning light The prey they feasted on last night Was the flesh of their own children.

A poet dies twice: once when he is published, and once when a statue is erected after him. Mahmoud Albraikan

In the Iraqi Critical blog, especially what is related to the form of writing, many books were published to address this issue and forms were named after what they were meant to represent; circular poem, concrete poem, linear poems, blocs, and many other writing techniques like the spacing, certain punctuation between consecutive parts of a poem and many other related signs. A good example for books dealing with the form of writing, especially that of poetry, is (Breaking the Rules) by Muhammed Aljazaiiri. In Twitter there is a deliberate obedience to limited letters of a certain post or (tweet) restricted to its beloved 140 words, and to my knowledge there isn't a way to slide around! So this restriction directly affects the form of writing depriving it from some of its non-letter indicators. Maybe face book gave a little more space for the forms of writing but thinking again maybe the best way to preserve the forms is by uploading images of writing rather than trying to manage limited options of blog designs. These spaces are well occupied by the genre of Haikus and related poetic forms. It seems that in Arabic writing is having a hard time coping with small spaces but at the same time it managed to intensify the spirit of its lines to achieve publicity. Here a question may occur to our minds; may this lead to a new step in developing the forms of writing? by Maithem Alharbi